Wood Lathe Tips and Types

Wood Lathe Tips and Types

Being able to complete complicated lathe techniques will allows you to create more difficult and skilled projects. In use for hundreds of years, a lathe is used to create a cylindrical object out of a larger, sometimes square, piece of material. You may use lathes to work with all sorts of materials.

Having mastered the basics, many woodworkers quickly move on to more advanced wood lathe turning techniques. Being able to use more complicated lathe techniques will allows you to create more intricate and professional looking projects. As you try out your new skills, you will find yourself learning with each piece of wood you put on the lathe.

Lathes perform the machining operation known as "turning." While turning, material is removed from a workpiece by rotating it against a tool. Turning is a central production operation in the manufacture of many metal, plastic and wood parts. A bench lathe is small enough that you need to bolt it to a table for use. Bench lathes and center lathes are mechanically identical. The only major difference is their mounting. A center lathe and its stand are usually a single unit. A bench lathe is mounted to a bench.

A small version of the wood lathe is the mini wood lathe. This small table top version is used to create woodworking, art and hobby crafts. The small wood lathe is semi-portable as long as there is a flat surface large enough to place the base. The mini wood lathe uses a variable speed engine, adjustable chucks and slide carriages. There are also small lathes that use a brace rather than slide carriages to rest the wood. The brace or slide carriages help to make precise cuts so make sure one of these features is part of the mini wood lathe product that is purchased.

The Jet JWL-1236 is my first lathe so if you are new (or maybe not so new) to woodturning, this is a page to watch. As I learn to operate the lathe and explore various forms of woodturning, there are sure to be discoveries and revelations along the way. I will document them as they occur and update this page, so come back often.

Some of you have asked to see "the monster", the lathe kept out in the garage for several years just to balance large pieces to the point where I could put them on my Record lathe (Also since departed). The front cover is off so you can see the size of the motor. It runs on 110 volts, and weighs about 200 pounds by itself. I think it dates from the 1940's somewhere. The lathe was made 35 years earlier by an aircraft machinist and never turned a single piece of wood until I bought it. He also made the band saw he used to cut the solid 1 1/4" steel plate that makes up the headstock and the base of the tailstock. The ways are 3/8" channel steel.